Faculty turnover within academic pharmacy departments

Area of Science:

• Academic Pharmacy
• Faculty Retention
• Faculty Turnover

Background:

• Pharmacy faculty manpower has been a long-standing debate in academia.
• Previous studies focused on job satisfaction, but not faculty retention and turnover rates.
• This study addresses the gap in understanding faculty movement within academic pharmacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate faculty retention and turnover rates in academic pharmacy departments.
• Comparison between Pharmacy Practice and Basic Science departments over a 5-year period.
• Analysis of gender-based differences in faculty turnover.

Main Methods:

• Tracked faculty (instructors to full professors) across 80 US colleges of pharmacy from 1996-2001.
• Utilized American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) published rosters for data collection.
• Employed year-stratified cross-tabulation for departmental difference analysis.

Main Results:

• Pharmacy Practice faculty exhibited higher resignation rates (10.6%) compared to Basic Science faculty (6.0%).
• Approximately 2.7 Pharmacy Practice faculty left annually versus 1.1 in Basic Science departments.
• Women across all departments resigned at higher rates (13.2% in Practice, 8.0% in Basic Science) than men (8.7% in Practice, 5.5% in Basic Science).

Conclusions:

• Pharmacy Practice departments experience greater faculty turnover than Basic Science departments.
• Female faculty members demonstrate significantly higher turnover rates than male faculty.
• Exploration of novel retention strategies, particularly for women in academia, is recommended.